PBS To Air Merle Haggard Documentary

Videos by American Songwriter

On Wednesday, July 21, PBS will air Learning To Live With Myself, a new American Masters documentary on country music legend Merle Haggard (read our cover story on Merle here).

Keith Richards, Robert Duvall, John Fogerty, Billy Gibbons, Kris Kristofferson, Tanya Tucker, Don Was, and Dwight Yoakam, all pay tribute to “the poet of the common man” in interviews.

The doc was directed by Gandulf Hennig, who spent three years shooting intimate footage of Haggard. “For me as a documentary filmmaker, it has been a dream come true and at times a challenge,” says Hennig. “Merle is very guarded, at the same time, very honest. As an artist, he is as original and as spontaneous as it gets. Working with Merle, I learned to prepare for the unexpected at all times – it seems that he often doesn’t know himself what he’s going to do next. There is no middle ground with him. It’s not always easy, but it’s always exciting.”

Learning To Live With Myself will air at 9 pm (ET).

4 Comments

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  1. Merle sang a song last night about “new love”. I would like to know if he has ever recorded that song?
    Loved the show, it portrayed him as a ‘man” not just a musician.
    Thank you,

    Katie

  2. Meryl has been one of my favorites for many years . I wish he had more serenity , more peace in his life. He has brought so much enjoyment to millions I wish he felt some of it for himself . He was so lucky to have a father who loved him and who he loved . He didn’t have him for long but so many have fathers who abandon them , are abusive if they are there , so many who are so afraid of their fathers . It sounds like he had a wonderful father and had such a good start in life . If only a lot of others were so lucky.

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